 Security: Network Access ControlThis newsletter is sponsored by QuantumNetwork World's Security: Network Access Control Newsletter, 09/18/07NAC deployment adviceBy Tim GreeneAt the Security Standard conference in Chicago last week, Steve Hanna, a Juniper distinguished engineer and co-chair of NAC standards groups at the IETF and the Trusted Computing Group had advice for NAC deployments. His advice breaks down into steps that are applicable to other technology implementations, and can help make NAC projects run more smoothly. They are:
* Figure out what problem you are trying to solve. Dealing with guest users? Securing wireless? Protecting the network as a whole or just certain resources? Establish long and short-term goals for NAC. * Get stakeholders in the room, people who represent network security and endpoint security. You may want to include others such as facilities people who are responsible for conference rooms and common areas if you are dealing with guest users * Set technical requirements for the project and write a request for proposal. * Evaluate the proposals and verify what the vendors are telling you. Use this research to narrow the choices to just a few. * Do in-house testing in an environment that simulates your actual network conditions. * Do a gradual phase rollout. "Your rollout should not be a red-letter day," Hanna says. "It should not be, 'today everybody’s going to use access control.' You want to deploy gradually, so maybe you start out with IT. You know, eat your own dog food. Then you go to your most critical problems and address those." Consider scale. Everything that works in the lab doesn’t always work at scale at peak load. So verify either in the lab with your applications or with some other customers that have deployed this product that it’s going to work at scale. “The last thing you want to do is put something inline with your network and then on the busiest day of the quarter it fails and then you're up the creek,” Hanna says.
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| Contact the author: Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering network access control, virtual private networking gear, remote access, WAN acceleration and aspects of VoIP technology. You can reach him at tgreene@nww.com. This newsletter is sponsored by QuantumARCHIVEArchive of the Security: Network Access Control Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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